A former policeman who admitted running a brothel has been spared being jailed.

Brian Sheridan ran Hamshaws, also known as Club Liberty, a club for swingers, with his wife Caroline.

Their plans for a three-day fetish festival on the site at Scaynes Hill, near Haywards Heath, were halted by police in 2006.

Sheridan, 60, and his wife ran the club where swingers met to have sex while others watched.

Their activities were halted after local residents hired a private investigator to infiltrate the club.

He discovered up to 60 men were attending Pandora’s Party nights held at the club every Wednesday.

The event was run by a prostitute who called herself Pandora and paid Sheridan for use of the club but had two other prostitutes working with her.

Private eye Richard Clarke posed as a new member in April 2006 and paid a £150 entrance fee.

He said Pandora and her girls had group and individual sex with clients in the games room while other men watched.

On a second visit a month later, he saw a man dressed in leather and a woman build a torture rack in the club’s main play area.

The man was put face up on the rack and blindfolded before he was whipped and given electric shocks while hot wax was poured on his chest.

Sheridan and his wife, from Cobham, Surrey, were arrested but denied managing a brothel between November 2005 and June 2006.

They were due to stand trial at Hove Crown Court last month but Sheridan changed his plea to guilty at the last moment.

Prosecutors offered no evidence against Mrs Sheridan who was found not guilty on the orders of the judge.

Sheridan’s case was adjourned until yesterday for pre-sentence reports to be prepared.

Brian Tetler, defending, said at last month’s hearing that Sheridan is a former police officer who had no previous convictions.

Mr Tetler added: “This was effectively a club run within a club.

“Pandora paid rent for the use of the premises which for the rest of the week was legitimately run as a swingers’ club.

“The majority of the profits for the Wednesday nights went to Pandora.”

Sheridan was given a ten-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

Judge Cedric Joseph also sentenced Sheridan to 40 hours unpaid community work.

Sheridan and his wife did not want to comment as they left the court.

The Argus revealed in 2006 how police stopped the three-day Festival of Bliss from going ahead after complaints from residents.

About 350 couples from all over Britain were due to attend the event at the former Brighton Sun Club naturists venue in Sloop Lane, Scaynes Hill. Events included a “Moulin Rude” ball and orgies in a hot tub big enough to hold 36 people.

Residents said they were relieved that the festival had been halted.

David Whitome said: “This is the worst kind of event they could have held at the club. We are delighted the police acted as they did to stop it.”